Archives for January 2012

These are Arc Paintings done in the likes of Abstract Expressionism, but on a grand scale. They each are done in a series of 1 meter by 1 meter panels and when combined, each Arc Painting measures 10 meters by 2 meters. I created these in the 1960s and 70s and have 6 of them in my College Point, NY studio.

I am John Norwood. I am trying to be an artist. This is an Arc Painting. I call it Falling Balls. And it reminds me of the moon. I think it looks to me like a cold moonscape. It goes up and down in space with the segments of arcs in metric dimensions: a millimeter up to a kilometer. It’s concerned with arcs of metric circles. The left panel has a one meter diameter circle and then it goes down to 10 centimeters, 1 centimeter and 1 millimeter. Then it goes up to 10 meters, 100 meters, and 1,000 meters, the arcs going through this painting. These paintings were done 40 some years ago in New Jersey where I had an art studio. And the junk on it is stuff left from architectural models, stuff from doing the renovation on this building. It’s all very autobiographical, like a baby barricade, a carousel from a slide camera, and various other cut-off wood from doing the renovation.

There’s a line from T.S. Eliot, “I’ve measured out my life in coffee spoons.”

The first thing I do in the morning at four o’clock is make myself a cup of coffee. That usually lasts me a half hour and then I go make another one. I’ve been saving coffee cups for 40 years. I have thousands of them. I have drunk every damn one except for 10 or 20 that other people have left. I have coffee cups made of foam and cardboard. They all used to be foam 30 – 40 years ago and then they had to change to cardboard. I keep collecting them, glueing them together and painting them.

If you want to see any of these Coffee Cup Sculptures you are very welcome to by contacting me online here or calling me at 347 884-0388.